Holy War set in Titan Classic championship, Kapaun avenges last year’s season-killer
Almost 10 months to the day, Kapaun goalkeeper Maggie Koster couldn’t handle a free kick that ended up contributing to the Crusaders’ demise.
Maize’s Bailey Stedman fired a rocket on a free kick that went through Koster’s hands. Kapaun’s season ended in the Class 5A quarterfinals, 2-0. Koster had sure hands on Thursday.
In the semifinals of the 2019 Titan Classic, the teams met again, and after going to penalty kicks, Koster had the game’s final touch. She saved Maize sophomore Reina Cline’s PK, and the loss had been avenged. Kapaun beat Maize on penalty kicks 4-3 after the game had been tied 1-1.
“I played a half in last year’s game, and it was a struggle,” Koster said. “So I’m happy we did it. I feel like we did it for our seniors last year that didn’t get to be a part of this because they are definitely part of the reason why we won today.”
The Crusaders were about 2 inches from not having their shot in penalty kicks.
With about a minute to go, Maize senior striker Cammie Davis ran through a pass from senior midfielder Payton Eskridge. The flawless ball had Davis alone with Koster.
The Kapaun goalkeeper sprawled to take up as much space as possible but missed the ball. It hit the post and rolled away.
“In those situations, it’s just luck,” Koster said. “For it to hit the post like that, it was just a stroke of luck. I guess it was our time.”
The game was end-to-end without a lot of midfield possession. The scoring opened just before halftime as the Crusaders launched a counterattack that ended with an assist from freshman Makenzie Orr and a tap-in from senior Emily Michaelis.
Kapaun couldn’t defend the lead as Maize came out of the locker room and capitalized on a Crusader turnover in its own final third. Sophomore Mina Chapman pounced and fired a ranged shot that dripped past Koster.
Koster said there wasn’t much need for a pep talk ahead of Thursday’s semifinal. The seniors told the freshmen about last year’s story, and that was all the Crusaders needed, Koster said.
“The message was simple,” Kapaun coach Anthony Cantele said. “ ‘Who ended our season last year?’ I think that was enough.”
With the win, Kapaun advances to its first Titan Classic championship game since 2012. There, it will meet rival Bishop Carroll in a Holy War contest.
Kapaun will play the third and fourth-place finishers in Class 5A from 2018 in a three-day span. Cantele said his group lost a lot from last year’s promising bunch that caught fire late, and the 2019 squad hasn’t spent more than a week’s worth of practices together.
The Crusaders dropped their first game of the season Saturday 2-0 on the road to Shawnee Mission South. The Crusaders are still learning one another’s patterns, Cantele said, but he is excited for their potential.
“This is a really special group for us,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge coming back, and even today, we were missing three or four girls who would have contended for a starting spot. So it means a lot to us for those girls to step up. It was a mental challenge in a lot of different ways, but I’m proud of how they handled it.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 10:39 PM.